“Why on earth would they hate you, Annabelle?”
“Because I left them behind,” I wailed, my head falling against his chest.
He closed both arms around me and held me while I cried all over him yet again. “You didn’t leave them behind intentionally. You thought Ember was dead. She even thought you were dead. We both did until about a year ago and even then we weren’t sure if you were alive or not. As for Coal, you didn’t even know about him. I haven’t kept the truth from them, Annabelle. They know exactly what happened.”
“What kind of mother doesn’t recognize her own children? I saw Ember almost every day for years and I saw Coal several times a week?” I cried.
“Let me ask you something. When you hear about babies getting switched at birth, do you blame the mothers for not realizing the baby they took home wasn’t their biological child?”
“Of course not,” I replied indignantly.
“Ember and Coal ran into each other a few times on the farm. Do you blame them for not recognizing their own twin?”
“Again, of course not!”
“Then why are you beating yourself up for the same thing? They don’t blame you and neither do I, because none of that was your fault,” he said with so much vehemence I almost believed him. “It was a fucked up thing that happened to our family, but what’s done is done and we can’t go back and change it. Only thing we can do is move forward.”
I sat up and wiped the tears from my eyes. “You’re right. I know you’re right.” I clapped my hands together loudly and stood. “I guess I need to get myself packed and ready to go back to Croftridge.”
He saw right through my façade. He had always been able to read me better than anyone else and, apparently, that hadn’t changed. He got to his feet and kissed my forehead. “It’ll be okay, doll face, I promise.”
I hoped he was right.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Phoenix
When I arrived at Annabelle’s house the next morning, she was waiting on her front porch, packed and ready to go. Obviously, she had spent a great deal of time with Wave’s club over the years and had traveled with them because she had all of her things packed in a small leather duffel bag and a leather backpack. I tried not to dwell on the thought of her on the back of another man’s bike.
Instead, I focused on her. She was a breathtaking sight, standing there in her tight jeans, a long-sleeved t-shirt, riding boots, and leather vest. Her long hair hung in a braid down her back. She watched me ogle her body and I didn’t give the first fuck that she knew I was checking her out.
“Are you about done? I’d like to get on the road sometime this week,” she said with a smirk.
“Oh, doll face,” I groaned, “I’ll never be done staring at your gorgeous body.” I reached down and readjusted my cock for good measure.
She rolled her eyes and sauntered past me, shoving her duffel bag into my chest as she went by. She climbed her fine ass on the bike, slid her helmet on, and motioned for me to hurry up.
I quickly strapped her bag down and made sure everything else was secure. We synced our Bluetooth devices and started on the long journey back to Croftridge.
Even though we were synced up, we didn’t talk much for the first few hours of the trip. After we stopped for lunch, Annabelle seemed to perk up a little. Finally, she asked me how I found out about Ember and Coal. Deciding it would be best to tell it like it happened, I started from the beginning, the day Ember walked into my clubhouse asking for help. By the time I finished that tale, it was time to stop for dinner.
We ate at a kitschy roadside diner and refueled at the station next door. I offered to stop for the night and find a hotel nearby, but she insisted that she was fine to ride for a few more hours. I was happy to hear that because, as it was, it was going to take us at least four days to get back home and that wasn’t accounting for possible weather or traffic delays.
We rode until we reached Salt Lake City, talking off and on about the kids. During the moments of silence, I had time to think about how I wanted our journey to go. If it was just me, I would have stopped at the cheapest motel I could find for the night, but I didn’t want to do that with Annabelle. This was a chance I never thought I would have with her and I wasn’t going to waste one second of it.
I pulled into the parking lot of a high-rise hotel right in the heart of the city. Annabelle gasped, “Phoenix, we can’t stay here!”
“Why the hell not?” I asked.
“It’s too extravagant. We just need a place to shower and sleep for the night. I’m sure there’s a basic hotel around here somewhere,” she rambled.
“Doll face, I want to stay here. That okay with you?”
She opened her mouth and then closed it. She did that two more times before I finally took pity on her. “How about we share a room to save on the cost? Will that make you feel better?”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “Um, yes, I guess that would be okay,” she sputtered.
I kept my face neutral but I was smiling from ear to ear on the inside. The first part of my plan worked beautifully. I walked into the hotel lobby with my proverbial fingers crossed that the second part of my plan would work.
